Free-Range Maremma Sheepdogs

Study of Ringo and Rosie

Data

Data collected from: van Brommel and Johnson 2014

van Bommel, L., and C. N. Johnson. 2014. Where do livestock guardian dogs go? Movement patterns of free-ranging Maremma sheepdogs. PLoS ONE 9(10): e111444. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0111444

Data collected through: https://movebank.org/

This study was to look at the movement and ranges of livestock guarding dogs (LGDs) in Victoria, Australia. LGDs are used around the world, and their behaviors are typically unknown if they are free-ranging. They used GPS collars to track Maremma sheepdogs and their movements. I looked at two of these sheepdogs named Ringo and Rosie.

Introduction

Maremma sheepdogs (Fig. 1,2,3) are livestock guarding dogs, typically used by shepherds as herders. They were originally bred in Italy for this very purpose and to protect the sheep herd from wolves and other predatory animals. The breed is very old and writings about it date back to the first century AD. They are characterized as having solid white fur, large and muscular bodies, and large heads. These dogs are very instinctual and easily trainable. They have even been trained to protect endangered penguin population on an island off of Australia.

Figure 1. Maremma sheepdog puppy.

Figure 2. Maremma sheepdog.

Figure 3. Free-ranging Maremma sheepdog.

Home Range Analyses

I took 2000 data points from the larger dataset for each dog. Let’s look at it graphically.

Figure 4. Data points for Ringo and Rosie.

Figure 5. Data points for Ringo and Rosie with background.

Minimum Convex Polygon

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Figure 6. Minimum Convex Polygon for Ringo and Rosie.

Kernel Density Estimation

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Figure 7. Kernel Denstiy Estimation for Ringo and Rosie.